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Update: Denmark Tests Chemical on Iraqi Shells
EFL slightlyResults are expected by the end of the week from a new series of tests to determine whether 36 shells found buried in the Iraqi desert contain a liquid blister agent. On Friday, Danish and Icelandic troops uncovered a cache of 120mm mortar shells, thought to be left over from the eight-year war between Iraq and neighboring Iran, which ended in 1988. Preliminary tests on the plastic-wrapped but damaged shells showed they contained a liquid blister agent. The shells were found near Qurnah, north of the southern city of Basra, where Denmarkâs 410 soldiers are based. Initial tests by field troops are designed to favor a positive reading, erring on the side of caution to protect soldiers. More sophisticated tests are often necessary. Members of the Iraqi Survey Group, a U.S.-led group of intelligence analysts, interrogators and translators, were expected to arrive in Qurnah late Monday for more testing, said Maj. Kim Gruenberger of the Danish Army Operational Command. Gruenberger told The Associated Press that the second round of testing could begin Tuesday. "We hope to get results as soon as possible. A good guess is at the end of week," he said. Before the war, the United States asserted that Iraq still had stockpiles of mustard gas, a World War I-era blister agent that is stored in liquid form. The chemical burns skin, eyes and the lungs. Lung blisters are a nasty way to drown. U.S. intelligence officials also claimed Iraq had sarin, cyclosarin and VX, which are extremely deadly nerve agents. In the weeks after the Iraq war, the U.S.-led coalition found several caches that tested positive for mustard gas but later turned out to contain missile fuel or other chemicals. Other discoveries early in the U.S.-led occupation turned out to be old caches that had already been tagged by United Nations inspectors and were scheduled for destruction. In October, Dutch marines found several dozen artillery shells dating from the 1991 Gulf War in the southern Iraqi town of Samawah, but the shells contained no biological or chemical agents. In April, U.S. troops found a dozen 55-gallon drums in an open field near the northern Iraqi town of Baiji. Preliminary tests found possible evidence of the nerve agent cyclosarin and a blister agent that could be mustard gas, but later tests found that the contents were not chemical weapons. Because Iraq is so militarized, some of these weapons will be found accidently years down the road. Posted by: Super Hose 2004-01-12 |
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